Did you have a c-section delivery?
Did you know that this is a major abdominal surgery? You had your abdominal wall cut through to get to that baby. And, keep in mind, you had a pregnancy with a growing baby that put stress and strain on your body, your pelvic floor, your abdominals.
During pregnancy, the baby grows and pushes on your pelvic floor muscles, not to mention your abdominals. While there may be less stress (possibly) on your pelvic floor than if you had delivered vaginally, there is still some stretch and give that happens on the muscles and joints in the hips and pelvic floor throughout pregnancy.
Your body prepared for a vaginal delivery, even if your delivered via c-section. Your joints, ligaments and muscles stretched and moved to prepare for birth. If you had a long pushing phases in anticipation of a vaginal delivery, this definitely had an effect on the pelvic floor muscles. Not to mention, MAJOR ABDOMINAL surgery where they cut through layers of tissues to get to the baby. This means that the connection of the muscles, fascia, tissues are affected. The ability for your abdominals to contract like they did before is different.
Let’s think about it…
When our athletes have an injury, especially a surgery (yes, pregnancy and labor is an athletic event), we send them to physical therapy for prehab (before surgery) and for rehab (after surgery). So, why is that not considered an option for our postpartum patients?
When someone has an ACL repair, they are in physical therapy for months working to regain range of motion, strength, balance and coordination so that they can get back to their sport or activities with reduced risk for further injury.
With a c-section you have had major surgery. This means your range of motion, strength and overall mobility have been affected by the changes in the tissues. More than likely, there is some imbalances in the tissues that need to be addressed to help you get back to all the activities you know and love pain and symptom free.
So, let’s get our postpartum clients in for some rehab after labor and delivery, regardless of the method of delivery, but especially if you’ve have MAJOR abdominal surgery (like a cesarean delivery).
While you may have had wonderful healing and great scar tissue mobility and strength is returning slowly but surely, it never hurts to get an evaluation or assessment by a pelvic floor physical therapist.
If you want more guidance, answers, and the confidence to do all the activities you love, we’d love to talk to you and see if you’re a good fit for what we do. Fill out this form and we’ll be in touch.
What were you told after labor and delivery?
What guidance were you given for recovery and return to activity?